RED released this news online today updating the status of the EPIC and Scarlet Camera program as well as announced pricing on new RED accessories and touch on shipping schedules...
"The 1st new camera to be released will be EPIC-X.* It is the reward for RED ONE owners.* It will be released in 4 stages..."

1. We don't have a good track record of making deadlines. So why frustrate our customers any more than we already have?
2. This is an EXTREMELY complicated project with a ton of difficult tricks. We are in uncharted territory.
3. Engineers are optimistic. Question- "So how long will it take to get this done?"… Answer- "6 months, no problem." On top of them usually being overly optimistic, we are always changing things mid-stream… which is an engineer's worst nightmare. These are the primary reasons we are behind a bit in the originally posted target schedule.
4. Several of our suppliers have gone out of business in the bad economy. It takes time to find replacements.
5. Customer feedback. It seems in vogue for companies to "listen to their customers". We actually do. Anyway, listening means paying attention and adjusting the program based on feedback. Adjustments take time.
6. We also changed our release strategy. We had originally planned on releasing EPIC and Scarlet as we did the RED ONE. Bad idea. Instead of "beta" version released to everyone, we will release production versions to everyone after a tight beta program. This change takes longer to accommodate testing, fixes, bug patrol and more testing, upgrades, etc.
7. The market has changed. When we announced EPIC and Scarlet, the world was hot. Now it is cold. No reason to rush to an empty market.
8. "Yesterday we knew nothing." How could we possibly make accurate predictions on delivery when we had no clue what we were doing? "Today we know something." That makes our estimates better than before but still not perfect. "Tomorrow we just might be dangerous." We should be getting better with our estimates as time moves on. If not, we aren't very good learners.
9. We have ALWAYS said (beginning at NAB 2006) that "everything is subject to change, including specs and delivery dates." Yet, it seems to be human nature to forget this caveat. So we will just not give absolute, drop-dead delivery dates anymore. Things will be released when we are finished, and finished properly. We'll continue to give regular updates (every week or so) on specific milestones so you have some idea what's going on.

The good news is that the EPIC/Scarlet project is better than ever expected. The images coming out of the new Mysterium-X sensor have exceeded expectations. The flexibility of the modular system has surprised all of us. The system is significantly better now than when it was 1st announced. Now let’s get to it."

Scarlet 2/3" Program. Given the recent new VDSLR releases, we have decided to up the capability of the Scarlet 2/3" Fixed 8x and interchangeable models. Several new features are being added that will NOT impact the release schedule (anymore than it would have been otherwise) but it will mildly impact the pricing. We should have all the details ready by the end of this month.

To accomplish all of these, we have added one additional ASIC and four new boards to each model Scarlet 2/3".

Sooooo. What can go wrong? Lots. We are characterizing the ASIC now and there are still issues to work through. We are not completely finished. Everyone needs to fully understand that while we are almost there… we are not there yet. The schedule as outlined is based on no significant bombs going off in the last ten yards.

SOME OTHER UPDATES.

The 1st rev. of new REDCINE-X (Mac and Windows) is available for download now. There is also a new release of ROCKETcine-X. Both free (as always).

The new RED Mattebox will be produced and will ship prior to EPIC and Scarlet release.

18mm RPP final working prototypes in December. Production and shipping should begin in January. We feel pretty good about this schedule since we have history on this program.

Both RED Rocket™ and the Breakout Box are now currently shipping.

In anticipation of our customers having several high-speed solid-state recording options for EPIC and Scarlet (Compact Flash, 1.8" SSD, etc.), we are announcing RED Station. More news on that in a couple of weeks. Delivery will be in advance of shipping production EPIC and Scarlet cameras.

Anyone who buys a new RED ONE or a used RED ONE and transfers ownership after yesterday... will be able to trade it in for $17,500 credit on an EPIC-X Brain ONLY (STAGE Four).

The purpose of STAGEs ONE-THREE was to reward people who believed in the program and fought through the process with us. Buying today does not qualify for the same level of reward.
_________________Casey Green
RedCam Central Founder
EPIC-M #5XX & #6XX - Rentals Now Available
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Last edited by RedCam Central on Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

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